Ghislaine Maxwell, the former socialite who conspired with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually exploit underage girls, was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison by a judge who said she played a key role in facilitating a horrible scheme that spanned continents and years.
Mrs. Maxwell, 60, daughter of British media mogul Robert Maxwell, was convicted on December 29 of sex trafficking and other charges after a month-long trial in which the government presented witnesses and other evidence representing Mrs. Maxwell as a sophisticated predator. which prepared vulnerable women and girls as young as 14 for abuse by Mr. Epstein.
His conviction, which drew crowds of spectators and reporters to a lower Manhattan court, led to a resolution measure in a horrific case whose lead actor evaded justice for suicide.
Investigations into the behavior of Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein showed how two prominent members of society used wealth and status to exploit and abuse the vulnerable. And the case offered a look at a world where the patina of glamor hid the routine infliction of an intimate and life-changing cruelty.
“The harm done to these girls was incalculable,” said Judge Alison J. Nathan of the Manhattan Federal District Court.
The sentence was shorter than the government had recommended: Manhattan federal prosecutors had asked the judge to impose a sentence of at least 30 years. If the sentence is upheld, Ms. Maxwell, with time potentially credited for good behavior and the two years he has spent in prison, could be released from prison at age 70.
Ms. Maxwell’s lawyers had tried to discredit her accusers’ accounts and argued that the government was prosecuting her for Mr. Maxwell’s crimes. Epstein.
Ms Maxwell spoke in court on Tuesday: her first public statement since her arrest in July 2020. Standing in front of the blue-trashed prison trolley, with her ankles chained, she acknowledged “the pain and anguish.” of the female victims who had gone to court. But he stopped before apologizing or accepting responsibility for his crimes.
“It’s the biggest regret of my life to have met Jeffrey Epstein,” Ms. Maxwell. “Jeffrey Epstein should have been here before all of you.”
Mrs. Maxwell’s trial and conviction were widely regarded as the legal trial that Mr. Epstein, 66, never had. The dishonored financier was hanged in his Manhattan jail cell a month after his arrest in July 2019 while awaiting his own trial on sex trafficking charges.
The high-flying lifestyle of Mr. Epstein, the mysterious wealth and the cast of famous friends gained him notoriety, although he was persecuted for allegations of sexual abuse. He socialized with the powerful at his home in Manhattan, London, Palm Beach, Florida, and especially after his 2008 conviction in Florida on charges of soliciting underage prostitutes, on his own. Caribbean island.
Wherever she went, Mrs. Maxwell, her romantic and then platonic companion, found girls who believed that caring adults gave them access to a rarefied world. Instead, they were trapped, forced to satisfy their seemingly limitless sexual desires.
After the arrest of Mr. Epstein, Mrs. Maxwell became the subject of intense public scrutiny.
Her attorneys, in a writ of sentencing, claimed that prosecutors focused their attention on Ms. Maxwell after the death of Mr. Epstein only to appease his victims and “repair the damaged reputation” of the Justice Department and the Prisons Office, under whose custody he died. .
Before imposing the sentence, Judge Nathan said that “while Epstein was instrumental in this criminal scheme, Ms. Maxwell is not being punished instead of Epstein or as a proxy.”
He also noted that Ms. Maxwell, in his lawyers’ accounts and in his own statement before the court, had not expressed remorse or accepted responsibility.
Judge Nathan said the sentence was limited to punishment for the offenses for which Ms Maxwell was convicted, but as with all sentences, the judge may consider additional factors. In contrast to the limited scope of the trial testimony, Tuesday’s hearing included a broader description of the sex trafficking scheme.
Federal prosecutor Alison Moe on Tuesday asked Judge Nathan to impose a sentence of “several decades in prison.” Mrs. Moe described the worldview of Ms. Maxwell like the one where there were two types of people: “People who really mattered and people who were disposable.”
After the hearing, Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said, “This ruling sends a strong message that no one is above the law and it is never too late for justice.” .
Bobbi C. Sternheim, Mrs. Maxwell’s attorney, speaking outside the court, said her client had been “vilified,” “piloted” and “tried and convicted in public opinion court.”
“Smart and cunning to the end,” he said, “Jeffery Epstein left Ghislaine Maxwell holding the whole bag.”
At trial, the government offered its evidence through 24 witnesses for 10 days in a case that focused on four accusers, who are now adults.
Two of the women went to court on Tuesday. One, Annie Farmer, was 16 when she was sexually abused by Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein after being lured to his ranch on the pretext of a program for high school students.
“Maxwell had many opportunities to clean up, but instead continued to make decisions that caused more damage,” Ms. Farmer said.
Sarah Ransome, a prosecutor who did not testify at trial, also spoke on Tuesday, recalling she met Mrs. Maxwell when she was 22 and aspiring to a fashion career that Mrs. Maxwell promised to support, but never did. do.
“I became nothing better than a sex toy,” Ms. Ransome, sometimes suppressing tears as she described Mrs. Ruth’s relentless criticism. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein, and the long-term suffering he suffered, which led to two suicide attempts. . She described Ms Maxwell as “the five-star general” of a decades-long sex trafficking conspiracy.
Elizabeth Stein, another plaintiff who did not testify at trial, said during the sentencing that she met Mrs. Maxwell in 1991, when she was a student at a fashion school in New York City and working part-time at a luxury department stores.
“Ghislaine was electrifying,” Ms. Stein.
That night, and in the years that followed, Mrs. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein sexually assaulted her, she said.
“In more ways than one, they almost killed me,” he said.
Annie Farmer, on the right, walks to the courthouse on Tuesday before testifying about how Mrs. Maxwell had treated her. Credit … Mostafa Bassim for The New York Times
Ms Maxwell’s lawyers have said she will appeal her conviction.
In her court speech, Ms Maxwell said Mr Epstein had “deceived everyone in his orbit”. He added: “It is my most sincere hope, for all who are in the room and all who are outside it, that this day ends a terrible chapter.”
She gave no perceptible reaction when the judge handed down her sentence, nor did her family members sitting in a row on the bench behind her. Minutes later, they drove her from the courtroom, with shackles on her ankle.